Al Franken lauds old college chum Phil Angelides

It was a Phil Angelides lovefest this morning when the Democratic candidate for governor showed up on Al Franken’s liberal-loving national radio show, which was at Sacramento’s Crest Theater for the day.

It was the state treasurer’s fourth appearance on the progressive talker and Franken, who went to Harvard with Angelides, had nothing but good things to say. Embarrassingly good things. Again and again and again.

“Every time you’ve been on the show, you’ve killed,” said Franken, a comedian and author whose radio show is the keystone of the liberal Air America network.

He described Angelides as “the anti-Arnold,” a man who’s had “an amazing career in the private sector and the public center, a brilliant guy — You did good as you did well (as a developer), pioneering sustainable communities, really amazing stuff.”

Later during the half-hour segment Franken asked Angelides to describe what he did in his job as state treasurer, where he “handles money in a very progressive way, very cutting edge.”

An upbeat Angelides was up to the challenge, responding to the political rule of “know your audience.”

“My job is to protect the pensions of the hard-working teachers and police officers who serve all of us,” he said, adding that he dumped the state’s investments in tobacco companies because “we shouldn’t invest in companies that poison our kids.”

To loud cheers from the audience in his hometown of Sacramento, Angelides vowed to be “the last one standing come November of this year” and argued that the election is a chance to “make California home to a new progressive movement.”

With polls showing Angelides losing ground to Steve Westly in the June 6 primary, the treasurer also took the more moderate Westly to task in what’s a likely tryout for future TV ads.

Without using Westly’s name, he described the controller as someone with “a checkbook bigger than Schwarzenegger’s ego.”

The most important question in the Democratic primary, Angelides said, is “whether or not to keep retreating in the face of the assault from the right — or whether to stand up as progressives — if that’s what you want, I’m your guy.”

While Franken applauded Angelides clarion call to the left, he said on-the-air that Westly would have a chance to make his own case on the show later this week.

That’s news to Westly’s team, who said they got a courtesy call from Franken’s people, but nothing more.

“We’re not going to be on the show,” said Nick Velasquez, a spokesman for Westly.